Right now as plans to slowly phase people back out of quarantine are being formed, there seems to be a battle between people who want to get to work sooner to help rebuild the economy, and the people who want to wait longer to prevent second virus waves and protect our society. Whatever your viewpoints on that debate is however, one thing for sure is that post-Covid recovery is going to be linked with job recovery programs and economics. Another sure thing is that climate change is still coming, and we as a society need to deal with it. So today we’re looking at the things lawmakers, businesses, and every day people need to do to create a green job recovery.
The Need
The first thing to understand about the post-covid recovery process is that we are looking at once-in-a-generation historic changes and investments around the world with trillions of dollars getting spent worldwide. One of the simplest arguments for developing a green economy is summed up nicely by Dr Andrew Steer of the World Resources institute, who says that “It would be a tragedy if after spending $10-20tn of public money we simply rebuild the same unequal, vulnerable and high-carbon economy we had before.” The pandemic is largely acknowledged to be a product of unsanitary animal markets, conditions that are not unique to China but in some form happen everywhere there is highly cramped animal agriculture. Furthermore, despite the temporary break from modern life the pandemic is causing, we are still largely not dealing with climate change nearly to the extent that we need to, which is arguably a bigger crisis. Our economy right now is largely unequal, built around unsustainable consumption and unsustainable fossil fuel resources, and is killing us. There is simply no reason to spend all this money on a recovery program to go right back to our self-destructive system.
Green is Good
The good news is that scientists and experts all seem to agree that a green economic recovery is just plain better investment. The idea is that a good economic recovery program needs to include both short term and long term planning. Obviously any crisis recovery plan needs immediate help to the economy, such as stimulus checks and certain types of bailout just to make sure everything starts functioning in the immediate. But A true recovery only happens when you plan out the long term recovery too, and so anything that is being invested in needs to plan for decades in the future. This is of course the crux of their argument, with coal being phased out and all fossil fuels being major contributors to climate change, any plan looking far into the future needs to be built around renewable energy and waste reduction. Investments in renewable energy sources don’t simply create an immediate job, they are better long term investments as fossil fuel projects will always butt up against climate change regulations that are getting stricter and stricter. As bike lanes and electric busses take over cities, it is clear that the economic stimulus packages with the most “bang for their buck” long term are not the ones reliant on a carbon economy but the ones built towards the economy of the future.
Amsterdam’s Example
A promising idea is being tried in Amsterdam right now, called the “doughnut theory” of economic growth. The basic idea is simple, the center of the doughnut represents the minimum living standards threshold and the out ring represents the maximum ecological capacity of the planet, and so a successful economic plan is then one that circles within the two limits. The thing that makes Amsterdam’s experiment so interesting is that the plan incorporates everything that impacts the city, not just the city limits itself. So for example, with the chocolate industry the farmers growing cocoa in Africa, the factory workers in Amsterdam making the chocolate, and the people around the world buying that chocolate all need to be factored into the system. This model is designed for a globalized world where decisions made by the city factor in everyone affected by them. Furthermore, it shows how directly linked human rights and standard of living issues are linked to the environment. Linking these ideas as a network is a system designed to prevent the kind of black and white, jobs or green economy models we are so used to seeing with a more holistic approach. This holistic, systems based thinking is the key towards a more sustainable future, and the quarantine has turned into something of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to build it.
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]]>There has been a ton of waste generated from the Covid19 crisis unfortunately. This is of course unavoidable as much of it is medically necessary and safety always comes first, but this doesn’t mean we need to continue this post-quarantine. So today we’re looking at tips for making sure this single-use blip is a temporary setback and not a permanent change.
Focus on the Reusables you can use
For right now those of us still in quarantine or quarantine-like situations may be feeling pretty bad at seeing plastic bag bans getting delayed or seeing garbage cans overflowing with plastic gloves and single use masks. But there are still plenty of reusable changes we can make or keep up with. You can still get loose-leaf tea over plastic containing store bought teabags, you can still use washable masks instead of single-use masks in plenty of scenarios, you can still use washable cheesecloth instead of cling wrap, you can still buy in bulk (or at least in larger bags) and store leftovers in mason jars. Not everything can be still used in a pandemic of course but that just means the options that can be done are that much more impactful.
Keep your slower lifestyle
As we all slowly start coming out of quarantine we need to remember what a slowed down life has been like. While quarantine has certainly been stressful it has also involved a lot of time resting, a major shift in pace, self-care time, and of course time spent not impulse shopping. We’ve also of course seen the impact of this with stories of clearer air and happy animals around the world. We’ve been given a chance to see the impact and the value of collectively slowing down, and we need to make sure that we don’t lose this in our rush to get back to “normal.” That normal was killing us and the planet, and we don’t need it.
Stay up-to-date on the issues.
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There has been talk on all sides about what we must do as a country and as a planet to come out of Covid19 and to build a better world. But few have had both the authority and the vision of recent statement by the experts at The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). So today we are going to talk about their ideas about how humanity is to blame for this virus and what we need to do to prevent another pandemic.
The Cause: Humanity
The first thing they argue is that regardless of individual country politics there is only one thing to blame for causing the virus in the first place, humanity. At the end of the day we have been massively encroaching on wildlife, destroying natural habitats and abused animal life in our care with cramped squalid conditions. Yes we can talk about Covid19 most likely starting in a wet market in Wuhan China, but we also need to remember H1N1 started in the US factory farm system. At the end of the day the common link here is a worldwide culture of rapid growth at the expense of the natural environment and human suffering. As the IPBES point out “Rampant deforestation, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture, intensive farming, mining and infrastructure development, as well as the exploitation of wild species have created a ‘perfect storm’ for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people.” In other words, we can’t simply think of Covid19 as a one time case of bad luck, but as the inevitable result of how we treat the world we live in. Jane Goodall made the same point in a separate statement, pointing out a pandemic of this scale was predicted by scientists as only a matter of time and arguing that we’ve done this to ourselves. H1N1 was a warning we all ignored, and future pandemics like Covid19 are inevitable if we don’t make a radical course correction after this.
One Health
The IPBES’s second point is probably the most important and the most radical. They call for a future of One Health, the idea being that there is no such thing as the health of “nature” as a thing that’s separate and distant from us, there is only one planet and the health of the planet not just directly “affects us,” but is our health. This can be seen as a continuation of the approach championed by Timothy Morton and Bruno Latour, which to understand we need to go all the way back to Descarte. Rene Descartes is of course the enlightenment era philosopher famous for the thought experiment that spawned “I think therefore I am” and mind-body dualism. While much of the enlightenment has led to amazing modern wonders, we also are hitting a wall. The thing is, this approach that argues there is a real of the mind and a separate realm of inert matter leads to the conclusion that nature is this mechanical and entirely separate thing that we are free to explore and exploit as we will. But as Morton and Latour point out, this isn’t simply an ethically problematic view it is flat out incorrect. Everything from distant beehives pollinating future meals to the microbes inside us that aid our digestion are all part of us. And so as the IPBES argues, maintaining the environment is not simply an ethical choice or a consideration but is simply as common sense as taking care of your own personal health.
The Way Forward
Taking this all together, the only way we move on from Covid19 then is to construct a post-covid stimulus package and policy agenda that not only keeps the current environmental protection laws going but strengthens them and radically shift towards a more eco-friendly future. Laws designed to curb deforestation, fight global warming, end abusive factory farming practices, and protect biodiversity are just as important as increasing access to medical supplies, creating stockpiles of medical equipment, and ensuring our medical supply chains are operating well. The demand is already there, with everything from the fashion industry being disrupted by sustainable fashion advocates to picking up ocean plastic becoming a hashtag, to vegan food reshaping our quizine, But in order to really move forward with a better world post-covid we need to “confront the vested interests that oppose transformative change, and to end ‘business as usual’.” Environmentalism is no longer a matter of debate, and so what we need now isn’t new opinions but new actions and transformative change.
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There has been a lot of talk about the quarantine being a sort of reset for much of the planet. On the whole it has, between animals returning to habitats normally filled with people, air pollution cleaning up at a surprisingly rapid pace, and with the link between human health and the health of the ecosystem being clearer than ever. But in one way we’ve taken a step back somewhat: with our single use plastic use. Today we’re going to look at how our single use plastic use is affected by the virus and what can be done.
A Rollback
New York City was set to ban plastic bags starting March 15th. Then the ban got postponed to May, then to June. New York City was not alone in this, a wave of single use plastic bans was sweeping the world throughout 2019 and 2020 right before the Covid19 crisis, and unfortunately many of those initiatives are being held back, delayed, or abandoned. Interestingly, the science isn’t exactly clear on the issue, but the fear is of course justified. No studies have been done on canvas bags, but the virus has been found to live for up to 3 days on plastic. As Covid is generally weaker on softer surfaces the implication is that there is less of a risk on the canvas, however when you are talking about a grocery worker handing hundreds of bags a day the smaller the risk the better. Plastic bags are not the only thing affected, Starbucks announced it will no longer be accepting reusable coffee cups at their stores, and many cafes followed suit. Of course the measure is temporary, but it does raise questions about the relationship between health, safety, and convenience.
Alternatives
That said, it isn’t as if the alternative is to completely give up on issues of single use plastic waste. Responsible Cafes a network of coffee shops across Australia, has been advocating for a practice called contactless coffee, in which the barista fills a customers reusable mug without actually touching it, negating the risk to the server while still keeping the health of the planet in mind. Other reusable solutions have been proposed and put into action too, including washable (nonmedical grade) facemasks, bag-your-own canvas bag type setups, reusable face shields, proper sanitation protocols for dishware, and even stainless steel delivery dishware that works through heavily scrutinized sanitation systems. While certain changes to our lives and a certain amount of medically necessary single-use items are of course needed, there are alternatives to single-use plastic that are still safe.
A Future
All of this Covid19 talk leaves the plastic pollution debate a little hanging. Opinions have unfortunately soured on plastic bans since the virus, and of course the plastic industry has lost no time in exploiting this crisis to push their product. But we need to keep in mind that plastic is a health risk for both humanity and the planet overall, even if the effects aren’t as immediate or obvious as a virus. From manufacturing plastic being a polluting chemical intensive process to ongoing and ubiquitous contact with plastic with as-of-yet unknown consequences, including microplastics in basically everything you drink. Styrene was recently upgraded from possible to probable carcinogen, and BPA has been linked to multiple health problems and is already banned for certain uses in countries across Europe. The trend and the science all point to plastic being something we need to leave in the past. Hopefully the spike in single use plastics from Covid19 will simply be temporary and we otherwise still move away from our plastic world.
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With all this time in quarantine, many of us in big cities like New York are starting to get really jealous of suburbanites and all that gardening space they have. But luckily there is a growing demand for putting gardens on an unlikely and often completely unused space, rooftops. Today we’re going to look at everything rooftop gardens, including some surprising unexpected benefits.
Types of Gardens
Rooftop gardens are nothing new of course, from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to Tolkien novels mankind has always dreamed about greenery covering their roofs. There are a couple different types of gardens though, from simple ones most people can install on their own with enough elbow grease to large-scale construction projects. The simplest ones are built with simple carefully-maintained potted plants, and while the limited and quick drying soil can limit your options on which types of plants to pick, you can still plant everything from beautiful flowers to delicious vegetables. More extensive gardens will put a layer of soil on the rooftop itself, which is healthier for the plants as it allows their roots to grow better, but this option is obviously much more expensive. Finally simple green roofs just put grass on the rooftop. More popular in suburban areas than cities but not unheard of, these utilitarian roofs are designed to get some of the climate and personal benefits of having greenery on the roof with less upkeep.
Benefits
The environment is going to be thanking you for a rooftop garden. Cities are basically deserts for the animals that live there, and providing even a little extra greenery gives homes, shelter, and resting spots for the animal residents. This is especially true if the garden is made from mostly native plant life, which you probably should be doing anyway to help keep the maintenance down. Plant life also cleans the air, and in urban areas that need this the most this pollution filter can be a life saver, literally. And of course any greenery is a CO2 sink, doing a little bit more to help the fight against climate change.
The first and most obvious personal benefit is having a gorgeous private oasis in a concrete desert. This might be more important than simply unwinding after a long day, as seeing green might be considered a major important aspect to human health. Dubbed the biophilia hypothesis, it argues that as humanity developed in nature and not air conditioned apartments, humans have a psychological need to see large amounts of greenery, and explains why we relax in gardens. Vegetable gardens of course also provide a very direct material benefit, although the normal savings a garden creates for food costs are mitigated by some of the expenses of installing it on the roof, so probably best to only use the cheapest option of potted plants.
One unexpected but surprisingly good benefit is the energy savings. Traditional rooftop building materials actually increase the temperature of the building by absorbing heat, and so greenery can have significant heat reduction effects. Large buildings can have total heating costs reduced up to 6%, with upwards of 20% for the top floors, with the effects going up to 70% for extremely hot, air-conditioning intense environments. The city of Toronto estimates that a serious garden roofing effort would save the city $22 million, and Chicago puts their city estimate at $100 million.
Considerations
If you’re thinking about starting your own rooftop garden there are several things you need to consider.
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Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and despite all the hardships of the recent times it is important to have fun and celebrate what’s important. As always, saying thank you to your mom doesn’t have to hurt mother earth at the same time, so here are some fantastic sustainable gifts for mother’s day that still make sense even for quarantine.
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Throughout history, the horrors of pandemics have been followed by major changes in infrastructure, urban planning, and societies as a whole to prevent that disaster from happening again. The bubonic plague ushered in radical societal shifts that ended serfdom in much of Europe, the cholera and yellow fever epidemics led to the creation of modern sewage systems, and 20th century outbreaks of polio and the Spanish flu led to modernist style focus on sterile surfaces and spacious designs. So what about Covid19? Today we are going to look at some of the changes in store for cities post-Covid that’ll hopefully lead to healthier and more sustainable living.
Air Quality Focus
Probably the most talked about change is reshaping our understanding of air quality. The news and social media channels have been flooded with stories about how poor air-quality is linked to Covid19 health complications, as well as inspirational stories about how slowing down during quarantine has cleared up air quality much faster than anticipated. Together this is already creating a newfound focus and push for air-quality improvements, as what we’re seeing is that even the “normally good” cities for air quality could do with being a lot better. The focus on air quality often leads to changing our methods of transportation. Cities such as Milan, Vancouver, and Berlin are already racing to add more bike lanes, pedestrian walkways and to limiting cars, as well as increasing cleaning efforts in public transportation to ensure safe commutes.
A less-talked about but still important aspect of this is indoor air quality. With so many people stuck indoors, we as a population are starting to see major changes in how we should be designing our ventilation systems, rethinking common air fresheners and cleaners filled with toxins, and introducing more air cleansing plants into our lives. Balcony access, office gyms, and meditation rooms were already on the rise as perks for office workers, and as workers slowly and cautiously begin to return to work these enticements may become permanent.
Digital Infrastructure
The other big work change of course is with the rise of digital infrastructure. Sites like Zoom exploded in popularity as people worked from home quarantines, and likely this will mean that working from home will be considered much more of a mainstay in work culture moving forward. The interesting part is the implications of what this could mean. A shift towards remote work could make the digital nomad phenomenon less of a hipster alternative lifestyle and more of a mainstream reality. This in turn leads to less need for daily commutes into cities from a suburb, which cuts down on one of the major sources of traffic congestion, and therefore on pollution. Living in suburbs near the big cities is becoming less and less of an attractive option for many in developed countries, as quieter, cheaper options are becoming available while still making big city office-work money, and entertainment options are more available online than ever. Now, while cities in general are better for the environment due to the centralization of logistics and transportation, without the need for a commuting we could see “digital nomads” transform into “digital villages,” who use the convenience of online work to build smaller more close knit communities. Instead of the sustainable cities vs unsustainable suburb divide we could see an entirely different type of community emerge.
Rapid adaptability
Another aspect of the new city will be rapid adaptability that’ll make more efficient use of the space we do have. This style of construction made headlines worldwide The Huoshenshan Hospital, a temporary hospital in Wuhan built for Covid19 whose stunningly fast construction took only about 10 days. The secret was a combination of super lightweight materials and modal construction that allowed for an extremely adaptive form of construction. While obviously useful for emergency response, this type of technology has sustainability implications as well. Namely it will help certain types of buildings like sports stadiums and convention centers to become heavily customizable depending on the need. So for example, super fast housing units can theoretically be built for people in need, and as they get more secure housing the temporary construction can be changed into something completely different, like a festival setting. Sports arenas in particular are known for being particularly massive and not particularly sustainable construction projects, so imagine a sports center that can change sports entirely depending on the season, be used as a community center off-season, and can be made into a fully functioning hospital within days. Modal housing is already becoming popular as a way to get affordable, modern, and resource efficient housing to the people, and those same principles are being applied to all types of buildings.
Urban Farming
Finally, Covid19 has shown that we may need to think more carefully about how our food system works. With everyone crowding our grocery stores during a pandemic, our workers getting overwhelmed, and supplies running low, more and more people are turning towards growing their own food. For cities, this can mean turning unused lots into community gardens, rooftop gardens, indoor gardening, and even hydroponics that let you grow plants without soil, meaning those plants can grow in vertical planters saving massive amounts of space. One of (but not the only) big problems with our agriculture is how far the food has to travel to reach the grocery stores, which uses greenhouse gasses, creates a need for preservatives, and ultimately leads to lower quality food. Ramping up farming within a city will allow us to cut down on transportation while we fill our shelves with more fresh produce. While we are of course a long way off from self-sustaining cities, Covid19’s impact on our food infrastructure might kickstart urban farming initiatives that have long been dreamed about but not yet built at scale.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
After over a month of quarantine is that book collection of yours beginning to look a little thin? Are you seriously considering reading the Harry Potter series all the way through again? Are you just looking for a little more variety and miss your library? Rust and Fray is here to help by pointing you to 6 places to find books for free online, enjoy!
Project Gutenberg
The oldest and easily the most important archive on this list, Project Gutenberg started all the way back in 1971 and has been continuing its mission of digitizing every public domain book possible. Like it’s namesake, this volunteer effort is working towards making knowledge as accessible as possible, and with over 60,000 books to choose from you have the world at your fingertips.
Open Library
The place to go if you miss going to the library, this project is an extension of the Internet Archive project founded in 1996. Simple, easy to use, and categorized by genre, Open Library is a fantastic way to find new books to read online, and once Covid19 is settled a great way to search physical books to borrow too. There’s even a random book feature if you truly dont know what to read and want to leave it to fate.
Google Books
Probably not surprising, but the world's largest search engine can also be a great resource for finding free eBooks. Google Books is probably most known for its paid eBook selection, which is of course great, but next time you search on Google Books and want to browse for free selections, simply hit the drop down button labeled “any book” and switch it to free Google eBooks.
Open Culture
Looking for something a little easier on the eyes, visually impaired, or just plain prefer listening to books than reading them? Open Culture is a fantastic source for free audiobooks. Download or stream thousands of audiobooks aggregated from all corners of the internet so you can listen to some of the best works of literature absolutely free.
Smashwords
Looking to discover new authors and independent publishers? Smashwords offers the largest array of independently published eBooks and makes it easy for those authors to get their books out to the public. Created by an author whose book struggled to get published despite the wide appeal and enthusiastic agent support simply because the books unusual genre, the platform is designed to get quality books published without needing to placate marketing whims. For readers, this translates to an easy to use store front of eBooks by hot new authors with a massive library of free books and plenty of deals and give-a-ways to watch out for.
Bookboon
Finally, for those looking for practical knowledge more than literature, Bookaboon offers a platform that democratizes technical knowledge and helps fight against the rising cost of the University textbook industry. Vetted books peer reviewed by the California State University, you can be sure you are getting high quality information in everything from specific IT skills and technical knowledge to soft skills and professional development. It is built on a subscription based platform but when you sign up you can opt for the free option and have access to over a thousand books at no cost.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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Moving is important during quarantine. It is true that we don’t have to hold ourselves up to a certain standard of being “extra productive” during all this because this is in essence a type of mass trauma. Actually getting out and moving is an essential part of your health and wellbeing and gives you both something to do during all this waiting and empowers you to be in control of your well being. In that spirit, here are 5 awesome places to get yoga online!
As the name suggests, the whole purpose of download yoga is that you can take it anywhere. Between a website, an app, and the option to download it all this site is perfect for your power yoga, vinyasa yoga, specific exercise training skills, and more!
If you’re on the new age side and unapologetically so, then Gaia is a great place for streaming yoga videos along with meditation and several other related topics. Might be a little too out there for some, but it is a resource for mind body and spirit practices.
Looking to dive deeper into yoga from the comfort of your own home? Yogi approved prides itself on having a ton of specific quality content, from bare beginner essentials to advanced alignment drills. A fantastic resource for all things yoga.
If you’re looking for a little flexibility in more ways than just the yoga, Do Yoga With Me offers both a subscription platform and an absolute ton of quality free content so that you can test out the waters before you commit. As a bonus you even get your first 2 months free, specifically an offer made for the quarantine of course.
Anmol Mehta Mastery of Yoga and Meditation
Sometimes the most important thing to do during a crisis is to take a deep breath, and luckily these are just the experts you need. Anmol Mehta blog and meditation website just launched its free Pranayama yoga series classes, which are the breathwork techniques and methods of yoga. Learn everything from the basic benefits of Pranayama to advanced techniques of this profound but overlooked science and discover how to safely unlock your potential and personal growth through prana.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day we are going to give a quick overview of the environmental movement throughout the years so you can be inspired by all that we’ve accomplished and know what we need to do to keep moving forward.
How Far We’ve Come
Earthday was founded off the back of the environmental movement. Between Rachel Carson’s 1962 book on the dangers of pesticides, particularly DDT, becoming a bestseller and the Cuyahoga River catching fire in 1969 due to the massive amount of pollution, the people decided enough was enough, and in April of 1970 cities across the US were marching for the planet. This led to the creation of the Environmental Protection agency along with a wave of environmental legislation, such as the Clean Water Act and the banning of DDT.
Thankfully the environmental movement was not satisfied with the first wave of legislation, and has been a force for change to this day. One of the biggest moments came in 1980, with the creation of the Superfund operation. After the disaster at Love Canal, where a quaint New York suburb discovered it was built on a chemical dump site and after the EPA discovered an entire valley of improperly discarded chemical drums in Kentucky, the people demanded a system to clean up chemical disaster areas and make the polluters cover the cost, and that’s exactly what got done. But probably the biggest success of the environmental movement so far is with the Ozone. When scientists discovered common chemicals in refrigerants and hair sprays were causing a hole to appear in the Ozone, the world came together in 1987 with the Montreal Protocol to ban the chemicals causing it. In the year 2000 we finally saw the fruits of this, with the prolonged break finally giving the ozone layer to heal. These days the ozone layer is doing so well it is now no longer messing with the world's jetstreams and is well on track to be fully healed by 2050.
The Problems Still Facing Us
Unfortunately we are long from being done with the fight of course. Climate change first started getting recognized as a threat in the late 80s, and despite decades of activism and calls to action we seem no closer to solving it now then we did back then. The threat of climate change is starting to be really felt between continuous record hot years, frequent damaging storm events, and droughts causing climate refugees. What's more, we’re somehow in danger of missing the Paris Climate Accord targets even as the targets are being criticized for not being enough.
In addition to climate change, other threats to the planet are starting to make themselves fully known to the public. Between the Pacific garbage patch world’s recycling systems starting to break down in 2019, it became apparent that recycling wasn't good enough to prevent a plastic pollution crisis. This became compounded by the recent attention to microplastics, both to how widespread they are and how damaging they can be. First noticed with plastic microbeads in the cosmetic industry getting linked to increased heavy metals in ocean food chains, since then microplastic, including microfibres from synthetic clothing, have been discovered basically everywhere, from the Mariana trench to rainwater in the alps. Another environmental awakening has been the realization that it’s not just fossil fuel related industries causing problems. The massive amount of waste generated by the fast fashion industry has brought attention to a waste crisis, along with pesticide and water intensive cotton industry fueling it. Industrial agriculture has grown into another massive problem to be tackled, being blamed for greenhouse gas emissions, food waste, wildlife loss, and biodiversity loss.
What We Can Do
Considering how far we have come though, these current problems shouldn’t be a reason to despair but a galvanization towards action, and for many it already has. For a long time the canvas bag movement has been making slow but steady progress into the mainstream until finally in 2019 we had a breakthrough year in plastic bag bannings. 2019 also became a year where the scope of single-use plastic bans extended, including Styrofoam bans in NYC, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington DC, a major single-use plastic ban effective across the EU, and groundbreaking lawsuits against some of the world’s worst plastic polluters like Coca-Cola.
Recently we’ve also begun to completely change the shape of our fast-pace consumer culture. Various slow movements, from slow food to slow fashion, have sprung forth to turn us away from disposability and planned obsolescence towards a society built on reduce, reuse, and long lasting products. Zero waste went from a flight of fancy to a real movement, with popular influencers like Bea Johnson giving real actionable tips on reducing your waste output right now. Upcycling companies like Rust and Fray, rental clothing like Rent the Runway, and companies rethinking the basics of production like Veja are reshaping the fashion world, while the vegan food movement is so popular that restaurants of all sizes are now serving creative new vegan dishes and replacement meats like Beyond Burger. We have the tools and the abilities we need to make the world a better place, and with enough support we can and will succeed.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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While the end of the quarantine is drawing closer, we are still not there yet, with New York City extending quarantine for two more weeks as plans for a safe return to normal are being formulated. This means that there’s still plenty of time left in our rooms, so to pass the time let’s look at some great ways to get your learning caps on being streamed for free!
Just want to feel good? - Yale Key to Happiness Series
They say knowledge is power, and this is true for our happiness too. What makes someone happy? What are some misconceptions about happiness? Why do we think the way we do? This uber-popular series looks at the science behind well being, so you can understand why and how happy lives are built.
Brush Up on the Classics - University of Virginia’s Shakespeare & Politics
Presented by Shakespeare scholar Paul Cantor for free on youtube, this series looks at how the politics of the time informed and shaped Shakespeare’s work, giving you a deeper appreciation of one of the world’s greatest thinkers and the incredible library of work he left behind.
History Buff - American Revolution Institute Online History Series
If literature isn’t your thing but politics and history are right up your alley (or you just have the Hamilton soundtrack on repeat), the American Revolution series has a large library of history lectures perfect for you. Go deep into American history and learn just what was going on in the country's founding, including understanding particular founding fathers, the specifics of the war itself, and how the American Revolution related to other major events around the world.
Keep Up to Date - Arizona State University Pandemic dialogues
If you want something more recent, nothing’s more recent than discussing Covid19. Arizona’s timely lecture series covers pandemics from all angles, including modern perspectives on previous plagues, understanding what a post-pandemic world might look like, and philosophical questions that pandemics inevitably bring up.
Skillset focused? - University of Michigan Python for everyone
Finally, for the people who want their learning to have immediate practicality, look no further than the amazing Python for Everyone series. Designed for people with no previous experience in coding or programming whatsoever this step by step course will get you the tools and knowledge you need to analyze data and make simple programs in one of the most common programming tools out there.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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With so much of the world in flux right now over covid, it is easy to forget the big changes going on in the fashion industry and throughout the world of sustainability before all this. While seeing animals get more room to live and the air becoming clearer has been wonderful and inspiring, we still need to remember the direction we need to go or else we end up right back where we started. So let's look at the future of fashion and see how trends and ideas are moving in the right direction, so long as we continue to vote with our dollar, our voices, and our passion for the planet.
Everyone gets a little better
The first thing to discuss about the future of fashion is that even the brands that aren’t considered sustainable are moving towards sustainability. As sustainable fashion becomes more popular overall, sustainable sourcing and materials are becoming a selling point. Now sure, there will always be some amount of “greenwashing” involved, but we can’t deny that fabrics like organic cotton are skyrocketing in all sectors, similarly to how vegan and vegetarian meat replacements are catching on in restaurants everywhere. Two other big trends are CO2 reductions and waste reduction. Between tightening CO2 standards for most of the world, countries like France instituting groundbreaking legislation on curbing fashion industry waste, and a growing sense of anger at the massive amount of waste the fashion industry creates, industries all over the world are looking into ways to reduce their CO2 emissions and find little ways to add recycling programs or be less wasteful in their production.
The Big Picture is Small
That all said, the big picture for the future of fashion is that it is going to be in the hands of small and medium sized businesses. While the huge scaling systems of larger fashion brands mean even a relatively minor change can have a massive impact, much of the work of sustainable fashion is being done by smaller companies. A big reason for this is that these companies tend to have much nimbler supply structures, and so they can jump from one eco-friendly idea to another quickly, be very close on the ground to make sure workers' needs are met, and have room to experiment with exciting new ideas. The other big idea is that all manufacturing is getting smaller so to speak. With the advent of 3D printing and other technologies that put a large amount of manufacturing power into small spaces, small companies can afford to customize designs, test out eco-friendly materials, and explore niche markets, allowing a level of personalization and uniqueness that larger companies simply can’t compete with. This also reduces the need for having a bunch of “pre-built” merchandise in a storeroom somewhere eating away at profits, which means there’s a real incentive not to overproduce.
Own it, or Don’t
The next big idea is the rental fashion market. Now this idea is just starting to catch on, with companies like Rent the Runway getting, but the possibility of rental and sharing structures are just starting to be understood and appreciated. With rental fashion, an item of clothing is now incentivised to last, as the company that owns the rental system will want to rent it out as many times as possible. So a large rental fashion market actively incentivises producers away from producing a lot of cheap clothing. Instead they'll want to start making higher quality pieces if they want their product to appear on these rental markets. Furthermore, rental fashion incentivises care and material repair for both the customer and the rental market. This helps extend the life of the piece even longer. All in all, rental fashion leads to a feedback loop away from disposability culture and into higher quality products.
Forget Designer, think Design
Finally, innovations in design towards sustainability are starting to lead to exciting new concepts. When people initially think of sustainably made clothing, they tend to look at whether or not there is an organic process behind the material and what the materials are. This, while good, is not a complete picture of what is happening in the sustainable world, as brand new ways of being sustainable are being developed. One idea is modal fashion, which is fashion where the individual parts of a piece are designed to be easily pulled apart and pieced together again so that a shoe with a hole in the sole can just replace the sole. Another idea is subscription services based off of completely closed-loop production, where you return an item once worn down, send a new product, and the old product is shredded and rebuilt into a new product for another customer. Innovation doesn’t happen in a moment, it happens in a process, and the more we move towards sustainability the more new possibilities for a sustainable world are created, until eventually our ideas and possibilities have evolved entirely.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting most of our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
With covid still going strong and ending plans for quarantine just starting to be discussed, now more than ever we are an online society. Luckily this hyper-interconnected world means some great things and there’s plenty more to do than netflix and zoom meetings. Today we’re featuring 5 artists livestreaming concerts and performances to keep you sane and entertained, enjoy!
A Daily Pick Me Up - James Orford Organist
When the quarantine began organist in residence at Westminster Cathedral James Orford decided that a daily pick-me-up was just the thing we all needed. So he retooled his Instagram away from the usual family photos and dog pics into a piano piece a day. Track your time in quarantine with a daily dose of Scriabin, Chopin, Debussy, Mozart and more.
Want to be Hyped - BTS' "Bang Bang Con"
If your looking for something big and grand, look no further than the Bang Bang Con, this Friday April 17th and Saturday April 18. Korean boy band sensation BTS officially announced a livestream concert back on April 9 and now the big day is almost here. Check out how to stream here, and know that the Bangtan Boys are doing everything they can to make their music easily accessible for their fans worldwide.
Miss Festival Season - Pickathon A Concert A Day Series
If spring and summer for you mean outdoor concerts and folk music festivals, know that legendary Portland festival Pickathon is bringing it to you every day at 1pm. Featuring indie rock, folk, blues, jazz, whatever Andrew Bird is doing, and plenty more, this venue is an amazing way to discover new artists and expand your musical horizons. On a sadder note there will be many tributes to the legendary John Prine, who was supposed to be the 2020 headliner.
Family Friendly Fun - Lisa Loeb
If you’ve got little ones running around and want to give them something fun to look forward to, then Lisa Loeb’s silly sing-alongs are perfect for you. Every Monday Wednesday and Friday at 11am Lisa hosts a live stream from her facebook, singing songs from her award winning children’s music collection. Perfect way to pass the time.
Looking for some Soul - Erykah Badu Quarantine Concert Series
NeoSoul legend Erykah Badu has been reinventing the world of livestreaming just as much as she reinvented music. Her concert series offers a new experimentation in audience participation, with the audience not only getting to vote on what song gets played but on different interpretations of each song too. They say constraints breed innovation and Badu is proving that right.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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We may not have much of a commute anymore, but podcasts are still a great way to pass the time. So why not look up some sustainable podcasts to keep up with all the eco-lover news and discussions even in this time of crisis? So without further ado here are 5 excellent sustainable podcasts to enjoy.
The Green Divas
The Green Divas is a whole family of podcasts to meet any eco-lover’s needs. Based around practical eco-lover tips, real world advice to stay sustainable without driving yourself mad, and low-stress environmentalism, you’ll never run out of topics, ideas, or laughs.
Hand Me Up Club
For a more localized take, check out the Hand Me Up Club hosted by sustainable outfit-of-the-day lover and New Yorker Lindsay Rootaire. Catch all the best news in sustainable fashion tackling subjects from upcycling (featuring yours truly) to sustainably made glitter. Season 1 recently wrapped up so catch up all the episodes while we eagerly await season 2/
The Green Dreamers
Focusing on the area where sustainability, regeneration and intersectionality meet, the Green Dreamers can truly envision a better world. Environmentalism and a holistic mindset are, if you excuse the pun, a natural pair, and no one creates a better vision for a future full of healing than the Green Dreamers.
Think: Sustainability
Hosted by radio veteran Julia Carr-Catzel, Think: Sustainability is a practical focused podcast designed to get you thinking about consumerism and getting into the nitty gritty of each issue discussed. Expect expert guests and plenty of food for thought
Containers
Finally we change focus a bit and dig into Atlantic journalist Alexis Madrigal’s “audio documentary” Containers to explore our newly hyper-connected world. This inventive series explores the interconnectedness of capitalism and how the heavily interdependent trade network that powers modern life, which is the backdrop of any and all conversations about sustainability and environmentalism.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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The quarantine is still going strong, but thankfully it seems to be working with some (but not all) projections predicting lower numbers than expected. So in the meantime we’re hooking you up with more book suggestions to keep busy, enjoy!
Need Some Magic in Your Life? - Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
A collection of stories that can only be described as fairy tales for the modern world, follow stories of magical handbags, alien clones in the living room, and zombies at a convenience store. Each story is as wondrous as the title would suggest, and none of it is frivolous.
Wanna Travel to Distant Worlds? - The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
One of Le Guin’s many masterpieces, this book follows a “first contact” story of man from a confederation of human planets meeting a species with no fixed gender. This anthropology guided, feminist themed science fiction gives one of the most famous and fascinating explorations of androgeny in literature.
Going a Little Stircrazy? - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
A strange book for strange times, the Pynchon postmodern classic follows a women’s dive into a world of paranoia and post office related conspiracies. Pynchon’s shortest work featuring the quirkiness of the American 60’s and plenty of bizarre humor, this novel will keep you thinking long after you’ve finished.
Want to Change the World? - Nature’s Best Hope by Dougless Tallamy
A hopeful and practical look at the future of the environment this newly released book shows how saving the world can start in the backyard, literally. The book talks about how bad for the environment lawns are and presents a vision of native garden filled suburbs that have a real potential for bringing the world back into balance.
Want to Change Your World? - The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo
As there’s never been a better time to start tidying up, Marie Kondo’s iconic book that launched decluttering into the mainstream is perfect for your spring cleaning. The basis for the hit Netflix show, this book will teach you not only how to declutter but how to connect with you home and few things you really need around.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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Spending this much time indoors naturally leads to critically looking at our living spaces. Why do I have this, is this the best place to put this, do I really need this, etc. Decluttering your room saves time cleaning and organizing in the long run, but there’s an environmental side to it too. Getting rid of excess and focusing on what you have helps you see that you can survive on a little less and focusing on quality is important. One of the big keys to sustainable living is buying a few high quality pieces rather than a bunch of stuff that’ll be broken in a year, and so getting good at decluttering is good for the planet as well as your peace of mind. So today we’re going to look at 5 quick tips for decluttering.
Start Small
The first tip is to not let yourself get overwhelmed. It’s easy to look at a cluttered apartment, office, or room and feel like you’ll never get anything done. Relax, take a deep breath, and start with one or two little things you can work on. Trying to tackle a big project all at once just leads to procrastination, so ease yourself into it.
Visualize
Try and visualize what your ideal space looks like. It’s easy to look at beautiful uncluttered or minimalist rooms and drool, but in order to help turn your area into that it helps to visualize what that will look like for you. Doing this will also help you identify which parts of the room are your image for “clean,” think of overlooked areas that are still important for decluttering, and overall getting you into the cleaning mindset.
Focus On One Area
Another issue of procrastination and getting overwhelmed is trying to do everything at once. To help fight this, be sure to piecemeal your project. Focus on one desk, one drawer, one cabinet, or something similar like that. This will both reduce the project to something you can do and give you a visible sign of accomplishment each time you complete a task, turning the project into a positive feedback loop of sorts.
Plan Long Term
Using the one area strategy, you can then create a long-term plan for decluttering. One of the biggest challenges with decluttering is that your space starts to clutter over time as your cleaning it, which is why people sometimes feel the need to try and do everything at once. But planning long term should account for that. As you declutter an area you create new spots, new forms of organization, and new storage systems so that you don’t undo the work you’ve been doing.
Have a “Box” for Everything
Finally, we don’t mean a literal box, but a mental category. Make a yes box, a no box, and a maybe box. Sort everything you’re decluttering into the three boxes, then go through your maybe box again and again until all of maybe items become yes or no items. This easy system makes sure you don’t miss anything and also helps you really connect with anything you are not sure of to figure out how you really feel about it.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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As we’ve all got a little more time on our hands then we’d like to now, it is the perfect time to catch up on some of those eco-documentaries. Documentaries are an incredibly important artform for both helping us connect to the natural world and learning about ways to protect it. So here are 5 nature documentaries you simply cannot miss.
An Inconvenient Truth
Credited for basically founding the 21st century version of the environmental movement, this 2006 film discusses the coming impacts of global warming, which we are now living through. Whether you are watching it to compare predictions to our current times or are looking for solid information about global warming and ways to finally start helping, this classic of environmentalism can’t be skipped.
Chasing Coral
A 2017 Netflix documentary not to be missed, this film follows coral reefs, a critically important and endangered habitat. Tracking the sadly too widespread phenomena of coral bleaching, this documentary exposes just how much damage is going on just beneath the surface, and how drastically we need to change to support this ecosystem and all the lives that depend on it.
Night on Earth
Another Netflix series, this documentary captures life across the planet during the night using heat sensing cameras to reveal surprising secrets. What makes this documentary so interesting is that it lets you see how moon dependant some life is, how life deals without relying on sight, and seeing all the animals going nocturnal to avoid humanity.
More than Honey
We have all heard how important bees are to the ecosystem and to human life, but what actually happens during beekeeping? This 2012 swiss documentary follows the lives of beekeepers in Switzerland, The US, and China as they deal with dangers to the honey industry, the environment, and the bees themselves. Educational but with heart and gorgeous cinematography, truly not one to miss.
The True Cost
Finally, we end with a documentary that is near to our hearts as a slow fashion brand. The True Cost explores the fashion industry from the most glamorous runways to the worst working conditions in order to explore what is really going on behind the scenes with our cheap, disposable fast fashion. We encourage fans of slow fashion and people everywhere to check it out in order to understand just how destructive fashion can be if we don’t work together to change it.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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During times of crisis we can all feel helpless. With Covid19 that feeling is amplified even more, as sitting on a couch at home getting anxious with the news all day or distracting yourself with netflix is about as far from feeling helpful as it gets. So today we’re going to look at 5 ways you can do your part in this crisis.
Donate Extra Supplies and Money
The medical supply shortage is one of the defining features of this crisis. Unlike my roommate you might not have a bag full of N95 masks lying around to donate (he works in a camera crew and they are a standard piece of safety equipment) but hand sanitizers, disinfectants, gloves, and other similar equipment are vital to the effort, New Yorkers can donate here. Food banks also need your help right now with the amount of unemployed people so make sure to share some of your stock of non-perishables. And with so many people out of work or with paychecks cuts, charities need your help now more than ever.
Donate Blood
It’s easy to forget that during a pandemic hospitals still have plenty of non-pandemic patients to care for. Blood banks across America are seeing a major decline in donations due to people’s fears of going out, but those donations are all still crucial. Know that blood banks are doing everything they can to ensure your safety such as mandatory social distancing and temperature checks on entry. If you are healthy enough to donate blood, especially if you are not living with anyone who has a particular vulnerability to Covid19, it is urgent you give blood.
Volunteer Food Delivery
Food delivery is even more important than ever given the amount of people needing to avoid going out. If you have friends, family or neighbors who can’t shop for themselves, offer to do errands for them. Maintain social distance as much as possible when dropping off the food and only go out in a mask, but saving people a trip can be saving a life. If you can, see if you can donate your time to food delivery services such as Meals on Wheels. Anyone can volunteer, and both food delivery and food preparation are needed, so if you are looking for a way to help this directly helps some of society’s most vulnerable.
Volunteer from Home
If you don’t want to leave the house but still want to help, there are multiple ways of helping from home. Programs like Alone connect isolated seniors to give them the socialization we all need, which is especially important in a time where no one can connect. The UN has a full list of online volunteering opportunities to use writing skills, translation ability, social media skills and more. Also, kill two birds with one stone by tutoring for the students stuck at home.
Stay Home
Finally, we can’t emphasize this hard enough, but even if you are doing nothing but sitting on a couch at home getting anxious with the news all day or distracting yourself with netflix, you are doing your part. Hell, order a pizza for your netflix binge, as ordering delivery helps keep your local restaurants afloat while getting you a relatively safe food option. We all need to do our part to flatten the curve, so if you have the luxury of staying home, you are helping so much more than you think you are. Our hospitals need your support.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
]]>One of the quiet discomforts of being stuck indoors all day is the air stagnating on you. On warm days we can of course open the windows and get a breeze going, but other days we get stuck with the stuffy air inside. Unfortunately this is more than just an issue of comfort, as poor indoor air quality can lead to some serious side effects long term. Luckily we can fight this, so today we’re going to look at 5 Houseplants known for keeping your home or apartment fresh and healthy.
Snake Plant
Also known as Mother-in-Law’s tongue, this is probably the easiest plant to take care of on this list. Perfect for absolute plant beginners, this hardy house plant can be neglected for weeks and still survive. Low level light and infrequent watering make them perfect for apartments. Luckily they are also one of the most efficient air purifiers on the list too, so what basically everyone should get one.
Aloe Vera
You may already know of the many wonderful benefits of Aloe Vera, such as its skin healing properties and teeth cleaning ability, but did you know this plant is also fantastic for purifying your air? Efficient at removing both Volatile Organic Compounds and Co2 buildup, this plant will help heal your space as well as you. A hardy desert plant, this is another plant that’s easy to grow, just needing a good source of indirect sunlight and a well draining pot.
Chrysanthemum
Need more flowers? Chrysanthemums make for a beautiful addition to any home that will help keep your air clean as well. Potted chrysanthemums are a little trickier to keep than some of the other plants on this list, and unfortunately it’s pretty hard to get them to rebloom indoors after its initial bloom, but regular watering, bright light in the day, darkness at night, and a little deadheading should make for a happy plant.
Peace Lily
A good compromise between hardiness and beauty, this elegant plant is easy to care for indoors while being a fantastic choice for cleaning the air. The plant doesn’t actually “flower” as white part is actually a colored leaf, so there's no need to worry about flowering cycles. All it needs is some low light and an owner that doesn’t overwater it.
Bamboo Palm
Finally, another very elegant selection for air cleaning indoors is the Bamboo palm. Similar to but unrelated to true bamboo, this small elegant house plant is incredibly efficient at air purification indoors. Liking a variety of light conditions, from bright indirect sunlight to lowlight, the only really tricky part is that it requires a slightly moist but not actually damp soil, so be sure to monitor your little plants health, but this love of humidity just makes it an excellent bathroom plant. One caution though, occasionally it grows berries which are toxic, so if you see any berries starting to grow remove them before any animals or children can get to them.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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The quarantine does not look like it’ll slow down anytime soon, and so it looks like we’re going to need stuff to keep us occupied and sane. So in that spirit, here are 5 amazing and topical books to check out, enjoy!
Something Topical? - The Martian by Andy Weir
Sometimes just staying alive is an act of heroism. The basis for the 2015 movie, this book follows a near future story of an astronaut stranded on Mars who must use all of his wits and a little luck to survive. A scientist’s struggle against time and nature, the themes of isolation and bravery will ring true with audiences in these times.
A Fantasy Escape? - The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis
Western meets fantasy adventure, in Davis’s debut novel we follow five girls escaped from a brothel as they search for justice, freedom, and escape from horrifying pursuers. Fans of Westworld and Margaret Atwood will love to be swept away by this well imagined fantasy world and engaging characters.
Environmental Must Read - Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough
An incredibly influential environmental book from 2002, this book lays out the idea of a circular economy, which revolutionizes recycling and has given birth to the modern upcycling movement. An important book for anyone looking to understand the modern direction of the environmental movement and wanting a vision of a better future.
A Timely Classic - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
A little too perfect for the era, this masterpiece by Márquez lulls you with romantic language that might make you miss the sicknesses hiding in plain sight. Following a love triangle set in a fictional town based off of turn of the 20th century Columbia, beware of falling into Márquez's "trap."
Need Something to Do? - Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson
One of the founders of the zero waste movement, Bea Johnson gives plenty of tips and tricks for reducing or eliminating your home waste and leaving no trace in everyday life. Perfect reading for someone looking to reshape their habits while stuck at home.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
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They say stress is the real killer, and in times like these it’s easy to see why. Chronic stress can cause inflammation, mess up your digestion, cascade into other disorders such as depression, and most importantly for the moment, reduce your immune systems ability to function properly. Knowing how to navigate and manage stress is vital, so here are 5 tips for lowering your stress levels.
Remind Yourself that it’s Okay to be Stressed
The first tip for reducing stress is to remind yourself that it is natural to be stressed, especially in a climate like right now. This may seem like a bit of an oxymoron, but accepting that a current bout of stress is happening now helps keep it from increasing. Remember that “stress” is the body activating its flight or fight response towards a dangerous situation, which is perfectly natural and understandable. All of these management tips are about creating an environment to reduce stress; no one has to be perfect, having stress doesn’t mean you’re “failing” at coping, and there are always going to be ups and downs.
Meditate
Next up is meditation. It might still seem a little too hippy for some, but meditation has been shown repeatedly to work for helping to manage stress. It works by both calming down from stress symptoms you may be experiencing at the moment and by building up a long term resiliency. When you think about it, many of the activities we deem “relaxing” such as netflix binging might not have you move but still involve processing imagery and mental work, whereas meditation actually slows that down. Meditation is a skill like any other, so don’t worry about “not being good at it” initially or only doing it for a few minutes at first, over time you’ll get to a more relaxed state quicker and you’ll be able to do it for longer.
Exercise
The body is meant to move, and almost all studies on how exercise and stress interact show that. In our cramped apartment and houses exercising can fall to the wayside, but exercise improves your mental health more than just taking your mind off of your worries. Stress boosts your endorphins which directly improves your mood, it gets the lymphatic system moving which will help you feel better, and it improves your self-confidence helping to create a positive feedback loop. Just make sure you are doing something fun, forcing yourself to do pushups and crunches if you think those are torture will just make you procrastinate more.
Chew gum
This one may surprise you, but (sugarfree) chewing gum is actually a long known stress reduction technique. There are several reasons behind this. First of all chewing gum brings blood flow to the brain, which could lead directly or indirectly to stress reduction benefits, in addition to increased cognition and concentration. Second, the face and neck area is a major area where stress is stored and expressed, and so by keeping that area moving you are helping to massage the stress out of your body. Third, the increased saliva production helps wash away plaque and fight GERD symptoms and both the health of the stomach and the mouth seem to be linked to mental health.
Write it out
Finally, when in doubt, write it out. Writing down your stressful thoughts is a great way to express the thoughts instead of having them fester inside. Writing about stress helps focus and clarify exactly what's stressing you, acknowledging the stress for what it is and what it is doing. Furthermore, you can then take the practice a step further and write what you are grateful for too. This will help you remember the good things that are happening, practicing gratitude and transforming the negative emotions into more beneficial ones.
Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, be sure to tune into our Facebook, Instagram, and Journal pages for more. During this quarantine we're converting our social media presence into helpful tips, hopeful messages, and suggestions for things to do to try and keep everyone's spirits up. Stay safe, stay well, and stay indoors!
]]>This has been one year of a month, and we still have another day to go before April. Unfortunately it looks like we’ll have even longer to go before we’re done flattening the curve, with projections saying it’ll take a few weeks to reach the peak in New York City alone. So we’d thought we’d quick share five inspirational and hopeful quotes to get us all through this, enjoy!
“But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
The times may seem dark and scary now, but times like these are when people’s good qualities shine the brightest.
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
- Buddha
Never be afraid to spread a positive message or shy away from cheering someone up. Now is the perfect time to practice spreading positivity. After all, #positivityiscontagious
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
- Maya Angelou
While we’re stuck indoors, remember that we need to do more than just get by. Smile, laugh, read, play music, and find ways to thrive.
“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”
- Jack Kornfield
On the other hand, remember to be kind to yourself. This is a stressful time, and naturally we’re all going to be a little down. Don’t be hard on yourself for not doing everything you wanted to get done.
“In a gentle way you can shake the world.”
- Gandhi
And finally, remember that you can still change the world for the better. Even if you don't have too many options these days, you can still do the little things like choose to reuse over choosing disposables when you can and making sure to recycle. Every little thing helps.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
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This month and this year got turned on their heads when Covid19 became a worldwide pandemic. Now we all find ourselves stuck at home as we #flattenthecurve so that our doctors and nurses can have a chance to fight this. One way to make these bad times a little more of a blessing though is to use this time for productive tasks we’ve been procrastinating on, such as organizing our closets. In the sustainable fashion world there is the idea of reducing your closet down to your main essentials, either entirely dressing in that or making this the main part of your closet with only a few, preferably second-hand extras so as to get out of the fast-fashion shopping as sugar rush cycle. So here are what we think your top 15 essentials are and who sells them sustainably.
White t-shirt - Everlane Women's Cotton Crew
Button up - People Tree Diane Jersey Shirt
Blouse - Armour Vert London Blouse
Turtleneck - People Tree Cecily Turtle Neck
Blazer - The Reformation Jenner Blazer
Jacket - Everlane Renew Anorak Jacket
Bag - Boho Cognac Suede
Dress - Christy Dawn Alyssa Dress
Cardigan - Nadaam Ribbed Cardigan
Dockers - Women’s Earthwork Pants
Leggings - Outdoor Voices Techsweat Leggings
Jeans - Levi’s Slim Fit Jeans
Skirt - Thought Clothing Angela Pleated Tencel
Sweats - Outdoor Voices Cloudknit Sweatsuit
Jumpsuit - Lucy and Yak Corduroy Boilersuit
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Welcome to Sustianably Chic, a series where we put fashionable outfits together based on entirely sustainable and eco-friendly brands. Once again we’re looking at cute and sustainable outfits to celebrate spring, this time going for a daytime and nightlife theme.
Bag 1 Story Bag Sage Green
Our first bag is the story bag sage green. Each story bag is made from an upcycled saree, and this one is no exception. Beautiful and subtle, this gorgeous shade of green is an elegant way to celebrate spring.
Pants: Toad and Co Earthworks Kick Flair Pants
Heels: Veerah Mulan Heels
As for the outfit we went for a classic spring color palette. Most think of pink and green as having an overly bright dollhouse feel, but with the right pastels and subtly you get Monet vibes instead. Plus, green heels are the statement staple you never knew you needed.
Bag 2: Boho bag Cognac Suede
For the next bag we kept the design but traded the textile out for suede. The genuine leather handle will make sure this bag is even sturdier, so you can have this gorgeous bag at your side for years to come.
Outfit 2:
Shoes: Able Rojas Tall Boot
Dress: Siizu Puff Sleeve Wrap Dress
Hat: Yellow 108 LL Driver Black
Finally, for the outfit we wanted to work with that beautiful and unique design from Siizu. Unique silhouette and interesting design, this will be a standout. Add in knee high boots (because of course knee high boots) and a Yellow 108 hat to give it a devil may care attitude and you’re ready to go out anywhere...just as soon as this quarantine is over.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
Welcome to Sustianably Chic, a series where we put fashionable outfits together based on entirely sustainable and eco-friendly brands. The weather is finally starting to look beautiful so we put together some gorgeous spring outfits to enjoy the day (or, as much as we can while in quarantine). So sit back and enjoy these sustainable spring fashion favorites.
Bag 1 Story Bag Rose Red
The first bag is a gorgeous homage to spring. Each story bag was once a saree, which is a type of colorful wrap dress Indian and Bangladeshi women wear to formal occasions such as weddings. Like bride’s maid dresses in the US, these sarees are often only worn for the one occasion. So we’ve upcycled these dresses so that the beauty and memories can live on in a new and reusable way.
Outfit 1
Blouse: Amour Vert Raisa Cupro Blouse
Skirt: Project Cece Coyaima Skirt
Shoes: Sezane Django Courts
Earrings: Aurate Deco Triple Gold Hoop Earrings
For this outfit we went all in on the unique silhouettes. The uniquely cut shirt alone is already cute, but pair it with a slightly baggy amour vert shirt and you’ve got a wonderful and contrasting look. We’ve finished it off with a standout 3-hoop earring and a versatile pair of heels.
Bag 2: Story Bag Forest Flower Green
We continued with the Story bags for the second outfit, showcasing a bag that’s a true homage to all things green and growing. Velvety touch, a spacious interior, and an innovative inner clip design to keep its shape, this flowery bag will be at your side all spring long and many more springs to come.
Outfit 2
Shirt: The Reformation Ruskin Top
Jeans: Warp + Weft NCE Wide Leg Noma
Heels: Fortress of Inca Victoria Luz
Jacket: Everlane Women's Demin Chore Jacket
With all these flowery bags we decided flower power was the only way to go. The wide-legged jeans and heel look creates a favorite vintage feel that’s still modern enough to rock anywhere. We combined it with one of the most gorgeous crop tops around, thanks to Reformation, in order to capture those free spirit vibes. Finally, we threw a great Everlane denim jacket over the top because a good denim jacket is an important staple for every wardrobe.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
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The American Dream is often depicted with white-picket fences, a nuclear family, and a sprawling yard to play in. But unfortunately one of those things is terrible for the environment. Suburban lawn culture is awfully unsustainable, so today we’re going to dive into exactly why that is and what you can do instead.
Lush green lawns cover around 50 million acres of land in America. Undoubtedly there is something unique and wonderful running barefoot through a lawn, but much of this greenery was once meadows, forests, and other habitats for wildlife. One of the biggest crises of the era is biodiversity loss, meaning that we are both experiencing a loss of animal life and a loss of types of animal life, and lawn culture is a major factor in this. Typical lawn grass species such as fescue, bluegrass, and zoysia aren’t actually native to North America, and even if they were, a typical lawn can be thought of as a monocrop, and nature craves diversity. Blanketing an area with a singular crop throws the local ecosystem out of balance, as a small handful of species that likes that environment will thrive while the majority of animal and insect life get pushed out of the area. Even if it seems like there is a clear separation of human and animal habitats, animals and insects in nearby meadows and forests are affected by this wildlife imbalance. Diverse plant life means more species will have food, places to hide from predators, more species to pray on, and so on.
The other big issue with lawns is the destructive upkeep. Because they’re not native to the area, they usually require a ton of watering just to keep them alive. Lawns are a massive resource drain especially in drought prone areas like California which are already under stress from the agricultural systems. Furthermore, like all monocrops they require a ton of fertilizers and pesticides to maintain. Runoff from lawn fertilizers are a major problem for rivers and oceans as they cause toxic and oxygen sucking algae blooms which kills off water ecosystems. As for pesticides, the pesticide industry has spent a very large amount of money trying to convince the world that pesticides are perfectly safe, but more and more research is coming out saying they aren’t. Recently RoundUp, the most popular lawn pesticide, has lost several major lawsuits due to links between the main ingredient Glyphosate and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Furthermore, pesticides are considered one of the primary culprits for colony-collapse disorder in honeybees as well as major disruptions and die-offs in frog and bat populations.
So with all these problems with lawns, what can be done? The best solution is reducing your lawn size and planting native plant gardens. If that brings to mind images of unkempt overgrown grass, don’t worry, there are plenty of ways to reshape your yard and fill it with gorgeous plants. Unlike most traditional gardening, once the lawn is landscaped it will actually be easier to maintain as these plants will thrive in your climate. But it is important to realize that native plant gardens are preferred for more than just the upkeep though, as native plants provide much better homes and food for your local animals and pollinating insects. Classic red roses and striking Purple Loosestrifes may look nice in a garden, but planting a sterile plant or an invasive species won't exactly be doing the environment any favors. Between trees, groundcovers, wildflowers, local vegetables, and native grasses, you’ll have plenty of options for providing a beautiful customized look for your garden that will not only please the eye but help your local wildlife thrive.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
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Welcome to Sustianably Chic, a series where we put fashionable outfits together based on entirely sustainable and eco-friendly brands. Much of the fashion world is heavily gendered, so this Wednesday we’re highlighting fashion that defies boundaries and boxes and is still sustainably made. Enjoy these amazing fashion looks for every body.
Bag 1: Encore Upcycled Backpack
First up is the Encore, an upcycled leather backpack that’ll quickly become your everyday bag for years to come. Sturdy and spacious, this sleek backpack design is a great and useful addition to any look.
Outfit 1
For the shirt and the pants we wanted to look at the innovative and important brand KirrinFinch. Founded by Laura Moffat and Kelly Sanders Moffat, this brand is built around the growing demand for menswear looks that are tailored for the requirements of female, FTM, and non-binary bodies. Neither of the women came from designer backgrounds, but the couple kept finding themselves choosing between ill-fitted menswear and well-fitting clothes that presented too feminine for them, and so decided to do something about it. To complete the outfit we added dapper AF oxfords and a beanie for that Williamsburg vibe.
Shirt: KirrinFinch Hutchens Botanical Button Up
Pants: KirinFinch Olive Green Chinos
Shoe: Adelante Shoes The Clasico Oxford
Hat: Brothers We Stand Organic Wool Beanie
Bag 2: Frida Upcycled Leather
We were once told this is a bag Johnathan Van Ness would love and we think so too. This elegant and spacious weekender made from upcycle leather is perfect for travelling in style. Take what you need and go anywhere with this durable fashion statement.
Outfit 2
For the outfit, we went innovative designs, including Lacher Prise which can be worn as a hoodie or a turtle neck, and a lightly tapered corduroy by Older Brother. Both of these pieces are chic yet loose so that no matter your body’s shape and dimensions these will still fit and make for an elegant silhouette. We finished the look with iconic Veja shoes and earrings from The Giving Keys.
Top: Lacher Prise Echape Long Sleeve
Pants: Older Brother Corduroy Pants Elderberry
Shoes: Veja V-10 Extra White Nautico Pekin
Key: The Giving Keys Rose Gold Mini-Key Post Earring
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
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In the sustainable fashion world, it is widely understood that the best buying practice for going green is second-hand or reuse, which is why Rust & Fray models it’s whole business on upcycling. Luckily in the modern world there really is an app for everything, and so there are multiple fantastic apps to buy second hand and pass on your old clothes to someone who wants it. So today we’re going to check out 6 apps that make buying and selling clothes easy.
1. thredUP
First up we have threadUP, easily one of the leaders in the second-hand fashion industry. Calling themselves the largest consignment shop on the web, boasting to have up to 35k brands available at any given time. It started when founder James Reinhart wanted a place to sell all his old T-Shirts, and funnily enough the site has since migrated to being a woman’s and kidswear marketplace. All you need to do to sell off your clothes is request their Clean Out kit, ship their clothes in the bag they send you, and they’ll photograph, price, and sell the clothes for you.
Many people don't realize that the giant of small artisan crafts also is a major player in the used clothing industry. Granted, as Etsy is built around a business model of client managed storefronts, selling used clothing is a little tougher as you have to do all the product photography and shipping yourself. But if you have an Etsy account already and are used to the process, you already know everything you need to for selling off the things in your closet taking up room, so have at it!
Love boutique stores and small vintage shops? Then Asos is the right app for you. The idea behind this British online retailer is that it offers a select amount of high quality vintage clothing so that the users can find unique pieces and great finds around every corner. Becoming a boutique seller there requires an application process, so you’ll have to have a pretty good selection of items to sell, but once accepted you’ll be in a fantastic marketplace full of amazing 2nd-hand finds.
4. Poshmark
No 2nd-hand shopping list would be complete without Poshmark of course. The offer one of the simplest selling systems out there, all you have to do is snap a photo then add a price and description, and when the item sells they ship you the label to send it out. For buyers, Poshmark changes the game by turning online shopping social, so you can shop with friends over the phone. You’ll also automatically be directed towards items based on your shopping history, so the more you use Poshmark the more personalized it becomes.
Feeling luxurious? Vestiaire Collective is built for all those eco-fashionistas who want a little luxury in their life. Founded based around the idea of making sure high end fashion pieces don’t get worn once and sit in a closet forever, this online marketplace makes it easy to sell off those old treasures. Your item photography and description will be send to Vestiaire curators to both make sure the item is of the right quality as well as maximize your items selling potential and visibility. In addition to selling it yourself you can also send the item to them as a consignment and they’ll do all the selling work for you.
6. Vinted
Finally, we have one of the best apps for closet decluttering out there, Vinted. Hailing from Lithuania, this absolutely massive, 25 million member online thrift store was founded in 2008. Being easy to list items and easy to ship means that you can go from closet to sold in almost no time, and the fact that they don’t take any fees from the seller means you’re well incentivised to Marie Kondo that closet. If you really need to see an item sold you have the option to boost it for a small fee, but otherwise the app is entirely free and an easy way to turn closet clutter into cash.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
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Climate change is a global emergency. Between severe weather patterns, droughts, floods, and large-scale loss of animal life and biodiversity, the rapidly changing climate is a major threat to our environment and way of life. But what exactly is happening? Today we’re going to give you a crash course in all things carbon cycle, so you know the science and the facts behind climate change.
The Carbon Cycle
There is a surprisingly small amount of carbon in the atmosphere itself at any given time, with only .0041% of the atmosphere being CO2, but that small amount does almost all the work of keeping the warmth of the sun inside the atmosphere. Most of the carbon is in the ocean, or locked up in organic life. There are two cycles of carbon on earth, the slow cycle and the fast cycle. When most people talk about the carbon cycle, they’re referring to the fast cycle, which is mainly determined by plant life. Using photosynthesis, plants take carbon out of the atmosphere, “storing” it in their bodies, and when they (or the animals that eat them) decompose, that carbon is released back into the atmosphere. The most effective ecosystems at storing carbon are tundras, seagrass meadows, mangroves, salt marshes, and tropical rainforests. Tundras are effective because the permafrost often prevents the plant and animal life from decomposing fully, and so if any organic matter starts to get buried it’s likely to stay there. The three coastal regions are effective because the deep roots of the plant life in these areas deposit the carbon underground and underwater, basically pre-burying it. And tropical rainforests just have so much life concentrated in them that the carbon doesn’t leave.
The slow carbon cycle mainly involves fossils, rocks, and the ocean. Fossil fuels are part of the slow carbon cycle, as without human activity the fossilized organic matter would stay buried until a geological event brings it to the surface. Similarly, plankton and shell building animals create calcium carbonate, which gets transformed into limestone on the ocean floor. The ocean itself is also a part of the slow carbon cycle, as carbon dioxide dissolves in water. Theoretically if we stopped burning all fossil fuels, all the CO2 from industrial society will dissolve into the ocean again. But that would take about 1000 years, so we’re not counting on that as a solution anytime soon.
Human Impact
Human impact has, of course, not been kind to the carbon cycle. Burning fossil fuels shoots all that stored carbon back into the atmosphere, and considering how little carbon is needed to make a large effect it’s easy to see just how industrialization can cause climate change in such a short period of time. How bad is it? One researcher estimates that we’re at carbon peaks that haven’t been seen in three million years. All of humanity is only about 300,000 years old and three million years ago the Antarctic had trees on it. Clearly this is an insane disruption to the carbon cycle. Current estimates believe that we are on track for a 2.5 to 10 degree celsius increase in world temperatures over the next century, and the arctic is expected to have ice-free summers by the mid century.
The regions that store carbon are also in trouble due to human development. The agriculture industry is one of the biggest culprits, clearcutting and burning down tropical rainforests for cattle farming in Brazil and palm oil in Indonesia. Like with fossil fuels, burning trees sends all that carbon straight up into the atmosphere. More than 35% of the world’s mangroves have been cleared for development or lost from other man made issues such as pollution, climate change, and overfishing. As polar regions are heating up faster than the rest of the world, the permafrost under the tundra are starting to melt, releasing that trapped CO2 as the organic matter begins to decay again.
How to Help
Don’t let this get you don’t though. If we act now, we can slow down climate change and prevent the worst of it. We largely have most of the technology to fight climate change, and while we can’t eliminate fossil fuels with a snap of a finger we can scale up renewable energy use to mitigate the damage. NASA believes this is the first phase of combating climate change, with the second being figuring out how to adapt to the climate change that has already happened. Solving climate change will require both global and local solutions. Planting trees to protecting rainforests, switching to slow fashion to a global transition away from monocrop farming, switching to public transport to major investments in renewable infrastructure. One thing we highly recommend is for people to count their carbon use with apps like Leafully and GoodGuide. Getting a handle on what you do personally is the first step in figuring out long term changes, and remember, small actions done collectively lead to huge changes overall.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
]]>Welcome to Sustianably Chic, a series where we put fashionable outfits together based on entirely sustainable and eco-friendly brands. This Wednesday, we’re giving a shout out to the brand The Giving Keys, a social impact brand focused on ending homelessness through employment. We hope to remind everyone that environmental sustainability and social impact are intimately linked, so enjoy these awesome and hopefully inspiring sustainable outfits!
Bag 1 Boho Black Velvet, 100% upcycled
The first bag is an upcycled boho bag that’s at a velvety flair to any outfit you own. The minimalist design and sturdy leather handle mean that you’ll be able to add this to almost any outfit with ease, for an interesting silhouette and sleek feel.
Outfit 1
Speaking of interesting silhouettes, that sweater is to die for. This black and white themed outfit also features a pair of pants whose design is anything but everyday, despite their versatility. If you don't feel comfortable with white shoes an all black boot would look just as good. We topped it off with a fun cap and a touch of gold.
Sweater: Bite Studios 22-4 Braided Knit Sweater, organic cotton and alpaca wool
Pants: Epoque Evolution Everyday Pant, certified non-museling wool and recycled polyester
Cap: Yellow 108 Anchor Cap, recycled materials hemp and organic cotton
Shoes: Sezane Alba Boots, responsible production model and vegetable tanned leather
Keys: The Giving Keys Create key, homelessness advocacy program
Bag 2 Midnight Blue Vegan Leather Vogue, 100% upcycled
For our second bag we have a second hobo bag but with an entirely different look and feel. The vogue is an upcycled vegan leather bag that’s big enough to carry everything you need for the day and more in a sturdy, zippered package and a cute, casual look. A perfect grab and go bag for your everyday essentials.
Outfit 2
Jeans: Alternative Apparel Able Button Front Jeans, women empowerment and poverty reduction
Jacket: Oh Seven Days Sunday Ute Utility Jacket, deadstock fabrics circular design
Shirt: House of Sunny Marina Shirt, waste reducing design and recycled materials
Shoes: Handmade Barcelona Chestnut Texan Leather Boots, handmade, artisan, traditional handicraft focus
Key: The Giving Keys Anything is Possible Pendant, homelessness advocacy program
As for the outfit we’ve got the perfect tough pretty look that just needs a standout lipstick and a badass attitude to be complete. The cute and flattering shirt from designers House of Sunny pairs nicely with the high-waisted button front jeans, and the jacket transforms the look into something rugged. And of course, those boots are to die for. Considering the western aesthetic this outfit had, we thought the feather key was a nice finishing touch.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this article and want to read more, check out our Instagram, Facebook, and Journal page. Let us know what you think in the comments below! As a special thank you, use the code Reader15 at checkout for a discount as you shop.
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